U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Access to benefits in private industry, March 2011

July 28, 2011

Paid leave benefits continued to be the most widely available benefit offered by employers, with paid vacations available to 77 percent of all workers in private industry, and 91 percent of full-time private industry workers.

Access to these benefits, however, varied by employee characteristics.

In private industry, paid vacation benefits were available to only 37 percent of part-time workers. Paid vacations were available to 90 percent of workers earning wages in the highest 10th percent of private industry employees and only to 38 percent of workers in the lowest 10 percent of private industry wage earners.

Paid sick leave was available to 75 percent of full-time workers and 27 percent of part-time workers. By wages earned, paid sick leave benefits ranged from 21 percent for the lowest wage category to 87 percent for the highest wage category.

In private industry, 64 percent of all employees had access to retirement benefits. Medical care benefits were available to 69 percent of all private industry workers.

These earnings data are from the Employee Benefits Survey. To learn more, see "Employee Benefits in the United States — March 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1112.